How Our Pain Drives Us To Seek HIM

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My Cup’s A Fillin’ Up

Oh yeah, attitude is everything, isn’t it? How you look at things is so important!

I ended up my last post Joy Bubbling Through Tears by talking about how God always knows what we are going through, and if we will keep our eyes open we will see the many different ways that He blesses us – just when we need it most! But the question is: Will we notice the blessings, or will we be so focused on the negatives that we fail to see the good? Phew, definitely a tough one for me sometimes.

Shortly after Jeffrey’s 9th birthday we had scheduled him to go in for hamstring lengthening surgery. This was not an easy decision, as there are certainly no guarantees with any surgery. Yet Jeffrey’s legs were getting tighter and tighter from being in his wheelchair for so many hours during the day, and it had gotten to the point that even when we tried to get his straight-leg splints on to help him get stretched out it was getting harder and harder to do so.

Jeffrey’s doctors and therapists were hopeful that this surgery would help him regain some of the elasticity in his legs, so we finally went ahead and scheduled it for early summer.

Jeffrey was such a trooper as we headed into the hospital! We were allowed to go into the prep room with him and watch the anesthesiologist administer the drugs. Then they wheeled him away.

Amazingly enough the surgery only took 1/2 hour, and when he was starting to wake up from the anesthesia the nurse brought us into his room. Oh-oh, he was NOT a happy camper. He was very frightened and discombobulated. He was crying, and our hearts were breaking seeing our little boy in this big foreign bed.

As the evening wore on, we discovered unfortunately that Jeffrey had inherited my high tolerance to pain meds, so nothing the nurses gave him seemed to work much. It was a long sleepless night.

The next afternoon they cleared us to take him home from the hospital, but then we encountered another obstacle – transferring him into the backseat of our SUV was going to be even more difficult than we had originally thought!

One of the nurses went with us to wheel him out to the car, but it was quickly becoming apparent that the 3 of us were not able to do this alone – and as a matter of fact we all were starting to flip-out! Jeffrey was screaming, and that was putting us over the edge even more.

But never fear, because the Lord is near! Gary had been reading The Prayer of Jabez written by Bruce Wilkinson based on 1 Chronicles 4:9–10, and had stated to me previously that he really felt blessings were coming our way. And indeed they started flowing:

Blessing #1: Jeffrey’s therapy office was right around the corner, and after a quick phone call 2 of them came over with the perfect equipment to help us get him situated in the car.

Jeffrey prior to surgery

Blessing #2: Once we started the car, Jeffrey konked out sleeping all the way home, and didn’t even wake up as we struggled to get him out of the car and upstairs to his bed!

Blessing #3: A friend from church called and said she was bringing over dinner. So we had a scrumptious meal hot and ready to eat that night.

Blessing #4: The next day one of neighbors brought over a new VeggieTales video for Jeffrey – and she didn’t even know he loved VeggieTales!

Blessing #5: Later that afternoon a knock came on our door and there was another friend from church who came to see Jeffrey and brought yet another great meal.

Blessing #6: That night a wonderful godly man who had been such a great mentor to my husband years before when we had lost our son Matthew (The Purity of a Child’s Heart), called Gary out of the blue and said he’d really like to go and visit Matthew’s grave site with him soon. For those of you who have not lost loved ones, let me tell you that words like that from a friend are some of the most special words you can hear. It so boosted Gary’s evening.

Blessing #7: Then the next day a couple dear friends who had moved out of state called to say they were in town and wanted to come by and see us. Again, these precious friends were rocks when we were going through the trauma with losing our boys. It meant so much for them to come by and be with us.

And, there is one additional blessing – which absolutely blew us away. However, sad to say, I’ve gone on too long today, so you’ll have to wait until next time – be sure and tune in!